On This Day in History: September 5

Fatty Arbuckle is falsely accused

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Hollywood has seen no shortage of scandals. The first big one involved the death of 26-year-old model and actress Virginia Rappe. It happened at a party hosted by famed comedy actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who would be falsely charged in her death.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: September 5, 1921--

The party was in Arbuckle’s suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on September 5, 1921, and despite prohibition, everyone was drunk as fuck. Rappe suffered from cystitis, a condition aggravated by alcohol. She was known to party hard and suffer for it due to her condition. Additionally, the quality of alcohol during prohibition wasn’t the best. She got floor-licking drunk and went into the bathroom to blow violent chunks. A doctor was called, who said, “She’s drunk as fuck. Here is some morphine to calm her.”

Two days later, she was in the hospital. Two days after that, she was dead from a ruptured bladder. Rappe’s friend, Maude Delmont, cried rape and murder most foul to both the doctors and police, proclaiming Arbuckle the perpetrator. Maude told a tale of her friend screaming in pain when Arbuckle was alone with her, saying he crushed her bladder with his weight during a violent rape. But doctors found no sign of rape, nor any sign of sexual activity at all. And many other witnesses said Arbuckle was never alone with Rappe, and that they heard no such screams.

It is worth noting Delmont had a record of both blackmail and extortion; she sought to profit from her friend’s death via a false accusation. I mean, for fuck’s sake, she sent telegrams to her attorneys in San Diego and Los Angeles that read “WE HAVE ROSCOE ARBUCKLE IN A HOLE HERE CHANCE TO MAKE SOME MONEY OUT OF HIM.” Nevertheless, Arbuckle was charged, and Randolph Hearst’s newspaper chain ran wild with the story, portraying Arbuckle as a disgusting lecher who used his weight to overpower an innocent young woman. Roscoe’s co-stars told a different tale, saying he was good-natured, shy with women, and would never hurt a fly.

A malicious prosecution by an ambitious prosecutor and the pressuring of witnesses to make false statements followed. Delmont’s story changed repeatedly; she was never called to testify because prosecutors knew the only “witness” wouldn’t hold up under cross-examination. The first two trials ended in a hung jury, but the third saw the defense rip the prosecution to shreds. The jury deliberated only six minutes. Five of those minutes were spent in writing an apology to Arbuckle that was read as they acquitted him.

Arbuckle was financially ruined by the cost of the trials and, despite the acquittal, shunned by Hollywood in the aftermath. He retreated into the bottle for many years, and in 1933, on the eve of a comeback after signing a contract with Warner Bros., suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep, aged 46.

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